+1 for suggesting turning what is usually described as the most noble of all creatures into the most disgusting creature ... by far

@Raditz_35, to partially compensate the disgust, the electric discharge will probably disinfect the other discharge...

So you answer one question by adding the next. How would they charge their horns?

@Fl.pf., that is stated by the OP, and not asked in the question: a la electric eel.

A delightfully ingenuous solution. Love the jumping spiders concept. Not sure about the electrical conductive of mucus, while water is good this sounds like it's up for scientific experimentation. Plus one.

I want spiders and mucus. I DEMAND SPIDER MUCUS UNICORNS NOW!

@L.Dutch so you're saying the horns of the unicorns are electric eels? Why would you need the spiders then?

@Fl.pf., I am just saying: read the question. There the OP explains how the charge is generated. What you (mis)understand is not on me.

Jumping kamikaze spiders...

@Fl.pf."I am thinking of copying the design of an electric eel to create the horn, however as air is not a good conductor of electricity it cannot discharge any electrical shock unless there is a physical contact."

I love this idea, but a question must be asked: The unicorn sure can benefit from a biological tazer, but what's in it for the spider? As soon as they land on the target, they are dead. Do they have a special kamikadze caste separate from the breeding caste, both hitching a ride on the same unicorn? Also, how do they make silk fiber that can be uncoiled quickly when the time demands? You can't wind it around the horn because you need two threads to complete a circuit.

@JohnDvorak umm they GET TO RIDE ON A UNICORN. I mean, what more can a spider ask for than to be a companion to a unicorn? Or maybe they just get to devour the cooked flesh of the electrocuted victim. One of the two.

@JohnDvorak personally, I think they feed off of the mucus.

that's kinda interesting... bio-taser! then i would need a pair of leaping spiders to form a close circuit for a/c lol

The unicorns charge up their horn by scuffing their hooves on carpet

Ob. reference: shopirisb.com/products/… . Also, maybe the spiders benefit from riding on the horn, but ... when the horn charges up, some of them are unlucky enough to take on some static charge and are subsequently strongly repelled from the horn at the victim. This is always happening with low intensity due to biological variations -- so these spiders have evolved the behaviour of always having an attached safety line, to return from small "background" repulsions...

@Raditz_35 : you've obviously haven't read Stross' Equoid.

FWIW, the spitting spider actually spits an envenomated web at its prey, which paralyzes them. @JohnDvorak, no - the spider has evolved in such a way that it spins itself a Faraday suit, so it's in no danger. Also, spiders don't coil their silk, it's actually produced on demand. I don't know the mechanics, but I envision that it's probably similar to peeing.

@WayneWerner I know that spiders produce silk on demand, but I can't imagine a spider weaving anywhere near the speed required. If your spider can weave 14 m/s (I can barely believe 1.4 = fast walk) it'll have about 1 second of air time and cross a distance of 10 m (discounting drag, which would be significant in this case), so your unicorn better know how to stealth. You'd also need genetically modified spiders that can weave two threads at the same time. For comparison, the best bows can pull off about 100 m/s.

Well, you've got unicorns that shoot lightning from their horn to kill. Amping up the speed that a spider spins shouldn't be that much of a stretch. Jumping spiders and their draglines is what I imagine. Do you mean they'd need to spin a second one for their Faraday suit? I'd assume they would just spin that before hand. Or perhaps their exoskeleton has metallic fibers that serve the same function.

This does fully explain why unicorns were the most feared unit in Archon.